September: Mt. Contradiction . . .

September: Mt. Contradiction . . .
(click on image to enlarge)
"...I shudder with fear for the word of man.
Everything he proclaims is so precise.
This is called Dog and that is called House,
and here is the beginning and there is the end."

from an early poem
by Rainer Maria Rilke

This week, an image called
Mt. Contradiction.
Also: a new translation
from the German.

(click on image to enlarge)
	"...I shudder with fear for the word of man. Everything he proclaims is so precise. This is called Dog and that is called House, and here is the beginning and there is the end." from an early poem by Rainer Maria Rilke This week, an image called Mt. Contradiction. Also: a new translation from the German.

The guest poem for this week is a new English translation from the work of the German
language poet, Rainer Maria Rilke (from the Rilke website, a concise hyperlinked biography).

Mt. Contradiction . . .

Rainer Maria Rilke, not quite 24 years old, with the voice
of an angry young man.

One must hear this poem in the German. I'm afraid the
English version I've made sounds weak in comparison.

Here the poet must fight for open space, liberated from
the noise of the surrounding indifferent culture. And to
protect what he sees as sacred from the language
of the market place and the military literal man.

Indeed, one could say, that for poetry to ring true
in the pure alpine air, the cannons must be made silent,
and resoundingly and forever sent home.

(If there were any one Rilke poem the Swiss might
take to heart -- a land that offered Rilke sanctuary
from 1919 to the end of his life in 1926 -- this
early poem may very well be it . . .)

| listen in German and English | [RealAudio]

[Ich fürchte mich so
vor der Menschen Wort]

Ich fürchte mich so vor der Menschen Wort.
Sie sprechen alles so deutlich aus:
Und dieses heißt Hund und jenes heißt Haus,
und hier ist Beginn und das Ende ist dort.

Mich bangt auch ihr Sinn, ihr Spiel mit dem Spott,
sie wissen alles, was wird und war;
kein Berg ist ihnen mehr wunderbar;
ihr Garten und Gut grenzt grade an Gott.

Ich will immer warnen und wehren: Bleibt fern.
Die Dinge singen hör ich so gern.
Ihr rührt sie an: sie sind starr und stumm.
Ihr bringt mir alle die Dinge um.

Rainer Maria Rilke
(XI.21.1898: Berlin-Wilmersdorf)

[I shudder with fear
for the word of man]

I shudder with fear for the word of man.
Everything he proclaims is so precise.
This is called Dog and that is called House,
and here is the beginning and there is the end.

I worry about sense, their play with derision.
They know everything that's been and shall be;
no mountain is still to them wonderful;
their gardens and goods border on God.

I want always to warn and resist: Stay away.
To hear things sing is what pleases me most.
You touch them: they are stiff and mute.
You raze to the ground that which is to me dear.

(tr. Cliff Crego)

| view / print Picture/Poem Poster: I shudder in fear . . . | or download as PDF |

| see also the Rilke Posters |

| listen to other recordings in English and German of twelve poems from
The Book of Images at The Rilke Download Page (# Includes instructions) |

See other recent additions of new English translations of Rilke's poetry, together with
featured photographs at:

(25) February: Images from the Periphery of Time (with recordings)

(24) February: Mountain Spring (with recordings)

See also a selection of recent Picture/Poem "Rilke in translation" features at the Rilke Archive.

See also another website
by Cliff Crego:
The Poetry of
Rainer Maria Rilke

a presentation of 80 of the
best poems of Rilke in
both German and
new English translations:
biography, links, posters